


Wildest Dreams

by lannisterslioness



Category: Jurassic World (2015)
Genre: AU, Angst, F/M, Past Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-18
Updated: 2015-10-24
Packaged: 2018-04-26 21:07:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5020549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lannisterslioness/pseuds/lannisterslioness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU: Claire & Owen went to high school together and harbored secret crushes on one another, but after Owen joins the Navy, Claire never hears from him again. Years later just as Claire had almost all but forgotten about him, his name crosses her desk at Jurassic World as the new velociraptor trainer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: So, I’m not too sure about this idea, but I’d like to blame this idea on listening to Wildest Dreams by Taylor Swift way too much while thinking about these two dorks. I’m thinking this will be a couple of parts, it may even have a flashback to when they were in high school if the memory is important enough. Idk, this may be crap but oh well, I’m going with it. Also this chapter is kinda short but the next one should be longer.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claire never thought that she’d hear the name Owen Grady again.

     Claire never thought that she’d hear the name Owen Grady again.

 

     When Zara had first read out the name before placing the folder down on her desk, Claire thought it was just her hearing things wrong. But there was his name printed out right in front of her on a folder as the future raptor trainer to the un-hatched eggs currently in the lab.

 

     “Claire, did you hear me?” Zara asked, placing the rest of the folders in her hand down on the edge of Claire’s desk and looking at Claire curiously.

 

     “Something about these employees coming to the island next week.” Claire picked up Owen’s folder and opened it up; she had to be sure it was the same Owen Grady she was thinking of.

 

     Sure enough, she saw his familiar face. He was of course older from the last time she saw him, a bit more worn around the edges, and from what she could tell of his file that wasn’t classified, he had gone off to the Navy just as he said he would. He had been with them for all these years, going back time after time, and Jurassic World was going to be his first job outside of the Navy – of all the places in the world he could have ended up.

 

     “They should be here Monday coming in on the early ferry around 6am.” Zara carried on and made a neat pile of the rest of the folders. “The lab said the raptors aren’t due to hatch for another few weeks either way.”

 

     “Alright,” Claire nodded and shut Owen’s folder, placing it on top of the others but still in a state of disbelief, Owen Grady was coming to the island. “I’m…I’m going to take an early lunch.”

 

     “Okay.” Zara nodded and left the room, returning to her desk and resuming business as usual.

 

     Claire hoped Zara didn’t notice just how quickly she fled the office.

 

 

* * *

 

 

     Claire didn’t often like holding on to things from the past, she could still remember all the stuff she had to leave behind in order to come to the island. Of course a few things had tagged along with her – pictures of her nephews and her sister, some even older pictures of her mother and father, and a yearbook from her senior year of high school because Karen had insisted she should have at least one high school memory with her. Then again Karen didn’t know that she brought another high school memory with her, something Claire had kept hidden away for a long time in hopes to forget it, but never truly able to.

 

     It was still in the same white jewelry box it came in, a simple gold necklace, simple because that was how Claire had always liked things. She had worn it almost all through college in hopes of that the man who gave it to her would appear again one day – he never did. Now he was coming to the island, heading right towards her and he probably didn’t even know it. Claire wasn’t sure exactly what she wanted to do; part of her wanted to be furious, to make him remember her and curse him out for never even letting her know if he was dead or alive, but that was completely unprofessional. She was tempted by the idea of finally tossing the necklace, but the minute she held it in her hands again she knew she couldn’t do that.

 

     Instead Claire put it on, she figured she could wear it until Owen showed up on the island. She still remembered the day that Owen had given her the necklace, their last day of high school together, it had been a graduation present of sorts though Owen never admitted that it was. He told her to wear it everyday until they saw each other again; ultimately she had broken the promise after she never heard from him again, and once she had taken it off she thought she never would.

 

     But now Owen Grady was going to be on the island bright and early Monday morning, and he would be in her life just about every day again.

 

   _Crap._

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

     Owen originally thrilled with the idea of working with velociraptors. He had trained dolphins before for crying out loud; smart marine mammals that – though they had teeth – didn’t try to kill you. Velociraptors were potentially smarter, and from what he had learned of the creatures that lived on the island in the past, were incredibly vicious. After some convincing, Owen took the job and thought of it as a challenge, it’d certainly be interesting to see just how long he had to earn these creatures trust before they started trying to kill him. Most of the people heading over to the island on Monday were InGen employees for the Velociraptor program; he had however met a few people that were employees of Jurassic World, put on the program under Mr. Masrani’s insistence. One of the people in particular Owen befriended rather quickly, a guy named Barry who had been part of the park before this program.

 

     “So, what did you do at the park before they threw you to the raptors?” Owen asked that night at the bar, sipping on a beer and trying to figure out from Barry what the island was like.

 

     “Well,” Barry began with a sigh. “First they had me with the herbivores in the valley, it was an easy job, the herbivores mostly keep to themselves unless they’re sick or something like that. When they started talking about the raptor program, they moved me over to the birdcage to see how I’d handle carnivores and, well, here I am now.”

 

     “You live on the island?” Owen asked.

 

     “No, I live out here. They bring me to the island for a few weeks at a time and then they give me a week off to go back home here. There are days off on the island too but it’s easier to just spend the few days here and there over on the island. They put me up in a hotel there for when I have to work.” Barry explained. “Are you going to be living there?”

 

    “They want me to take care of these raptors 24/7 to build up trust with them, they wanted to put me up in an apartment but I can’t stand those things. They got a bungalow out there in the middle of nowhere for me instead.” Owen responded.

 

     “Sounds spacious.” Barry said with a grin. “Watch out for the Pachy’s, they’re the only ones that get out a lot around the island.”

 

     “Hey, as long as they don’t try to eat me, they can do whatever they want.” Owen replied with a grin.

 

     “Trust me, there are plenty of things on the island that will still try and eat you.” Barry joked.

 

 

* * *

 

 

     Claire toyed with the idea of calling Karen; she always liked to seek out some kind of advice from her older sister in situations that stressed her out to no end. But she already knew the speech her sister would go through: _“Calm down Claire, it’s been years since you’ve seen him, you two are adults now, you can be mature”._ Years ago Claire had been a typical teenager, she had a hopeless crush on Owen Grady, she had been young and dumb and believed in crazy stupid things like love. _Why are you wearing this necklace again, Claire? Are you truly that desperate again?_ She couldn’t help but think to herself as she walked back into the office, subconsciously still playing around with the necklace that was now around her neck.

 

     “Mr. Masrani called while you were at lunch, he wants to talk to you about the raptors.” Zara announced as soon as Claire was in earshot.

 

     “Thank you Zara.” Claire mumbled, opening up the door to her office.

 

     “Your sister also called, she wants you to call her back as soon as you can.” Zara added.

 

     Claire just nodded and walked into her office, shutting the door behind her. _Typical Karen, sensing trouble a thousand miles away_.

 

 

* * *

 

 

     Monday morning came and all Owen wanted to do was get some sleep. He barely slept the night before and had his ass dragged out of bed at 5:15 in the morning to get down to the docks. They’d finally reached Isla Nublar right on time, and Owen wasn’t surprised to see people waiting for them at the docks.

 

     “Mr. Grady,” A dark haired woman walked up to him, sunglasses already covering up most of her face and dressed neatly in business attire. “I’m supposed to take you to the Creation Center to meet with Miss Dearing and discuss the raptor program in further detail.”

 

     “Alright.” Owen shrugged and followed the woman out of the docks without much hesitation while the others were carted off to wherever the paddock had been built for the future dinosaurs. It took him a minute for the name the woman said to fully sink in. “Wait, Dearing?”

 

     “Yes, the park operations manager, Claire Dearing. You were told you’d be meeting with her before you came here, weren’t you?” The woman asked.

 

     “I didn’t know her name.” Owen mumbled.

 

     Her eyes were covered but Owen could tell she was more than likely rolling her eyes at him while she continued walking. _It can’t be the same Claire, it has to be a coincidence,_ Owen thought, _Dearing might be a popular last name._ But deep down inside Owen knew the likelihood of it being a different Claire Dearing were slim to none, the Claire he knew was driven and determined, he wouldn’t expect her to be anything less other than the woman in charge of a place like this. Yet the thought of seeing her again made him more nervous than he cared to admit; never answering back a single one of Claire's letters or calls was one of the biggest mistakes of his life after all. 


	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Do you two know each other?” Zara looked away from her phone long enough to notice the odd silence that had fallen over the room. 
> 
> “Yeah.” Owen answered right away. “We-“ 
> 
> “We haven’t known each other for a while.” Claire cut him off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This turned out more angst filled than anticipated so, I’m sorry about that. It’ll get fixed! By the way, thank you to everyone who liked the last chapter so much, you have no idea how much it means to me to see that people actually like this stuff that I write! Okay, I’m done being mushy now :P

     Claire couldn’t stop herself from fidgeting around in the lab, waiting for Zara to show up with Owen. She kept fixing her skirt, checking her hair and makeup, making sure the lab was running smoothly; most of all Claire couldn’t help but to keep ensuring that she had taken the necklace off this morning. She had made the mistake of wearing it a few more days than planned, long enough for Zara to notice and as why she didn’t wear it more often, but she had taken it off and now hated to admit that her neck felt a bit bare without it. Claire had to admit she felt a bit foolish being so nervous, but as soon as she caught a glimpse of Zara marching down the hall, she turned her back to the glass, took a deep breath, and braced herself for whatever may happen next.

 

     “Here’s Mr. Grady.” Zara said as she walked into the room, taking her sunglasses off and placing them on top of her head before checking through the emails on her phone, as always.

 

     “Thank you, Zara.” Claire stated, trying her best to keep her composure.

 

     A mixture of emotions hit Claire all at once as soon as she saw Owen. Relief, joy, anger, sadness; despite all of these emotions bubbling up, Claire did the professional thing and kept her composure, straightening out her posture and keeping a straight face.

 

     “Mr. Grady, welcome to Jurassic World.“

 

     Claire had fully prepared her little speech; she’d recited it to herself all last night and on her way to the lab this morning. She was going to keep things distant, and if he actually remembered her than so be it, she would address it then. But the way he stood there, a grin plastered on his face, genuine happiness clear as day in his green eyes – Claire didn’t quiet remember what she wanted to say next.

 

     “Do you two know each other?” Zara looked away from her phone long enough to notice the odd silence that had fallen over the room.

 

     “Yeah.” Owen answered right away. “We-“

 

     “We haven’t known each other for a while.” Claire cut him off, she knew it came out a bit colder than anticipated, that was her own anger seeping out on her and beyond her control.

 

     Zara shrugged and dismissed it, though Claire knew she might try to ask her more about how she knows a Navy man later on. Owen’s smile faltered a little bit, though he didn’t look entirely hurt, more as if he were expecting it.

 

     “These are going to be your velociraptors,” Claire continued on, hoping if she got back on track that she would get a better hold of her emotions. “Dr. Wu expects them to hatch in a few weeks, of course he’d let you know before hand so you could be here when they hatch.”

 

     Claire turned her back on Owen and walked towards the incubator holding the four raptor eggs, almost everyone working in the lab was keeping track of the raptors progress, but none more vigilant than Dr. Wu himself.

 

     “Dr. Wu can tell you more about the raptors and what you can expect from them as they get older.” Claire explained.

 

     “Claire, could I talk to you for a minute?” Owen mumbled out in attempts to be quiet, but the lab was already so quiet it echoed throughout the place.

 

     “I have meetings all day, Mr. Grady.” Claire snipped. _Get ahold of yourself Claire, stop letting the anger get you_ , she mentally cursed herself.

 

     “Owen.” He stated, Claire could see now that he looked a bit hurt from how cold she was being.

 

     “Perhaps some other time we could talk.” Claire suggested.

 

     Owen attempted to reach out and take her hand, but Claire recoiled away as if his touch would burn her. Before he could say another word to her in attempts to get her to listen to him, she stormed off out of the lab, Zara having to jog a bit to catch up to her as she made her way out of the lab.

 

     “Are you alright?” Zara asked, rarely did her assistant ever show concern and rarely did she ever need to; Claire could always handle herself, but sometimes Zara’s unexpected comfort was nice.

 

     “I’m fine.” Claire sighed.

 

     “How do you know him?” Zara asked.

 

     “It’s a long story, I’ll tell you some other time. Just…if he tries to come to my office, could you say I’m busy?” Claire asked. “I just don’t know how to handle all of this yet.”

 

     “Sure, no problem.” Zara reassured her.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

     Owen didn’t expect Claire to be ecstatic about seeing him again, hell, he half expected her to at least lash out and slap him across the face – he probably deserved it. But she had just shut him out instead; she had gone completely cold and completely opposite of the Claire Dearing he had known. Then again, as she had pointed out, they hadn’t really known each other for a while, around sixteen years if Owen remembered it right. Owen knew he screwed up; he had a lot of time now to think just how badly he screwed things up with Claire. He’d become just like his father, the one person he never wanted to be, minus the part however where his father left his mother pregnant and alone and never to hear from him again.

 

     Owen never meant to do what his father had done, it was just that back then he cared about Claire more than anything else in the world, and she was the last person he ever wanted to hurt. But on one of the last nights he knew he’d see her – for at least a while, or so he had assumed – he screwed up and took advantage of her. He wasn’t that kind of person, but _god_ , Claire was beautiful – and she still was – and she’d been so furious with him leaving, so he kissed her. The kissing led removing layers of clothes and Owen practically throwing Claire onto his bed, teen hormones driving them wild. The next morning he’d never felt happier; the day he left however, he felt like the worst human being on the planet.

 

     Back then, Owen didn’t know how to talk to Claire from there on out, he cared about her, he knew that, but he didn’t want her to sit all alone thousands of miles away. She would send letters all the time, after a while Owen didn’t know what to do with the stacks of letters building up, so he kept them locked up in a box that had made it with him to the island. He read every single one of them but never even knew how to begin to answer back, so he never did, and eventually Claire stopped writing – probably even stopped caring. The thought of caring about someone so much had scared him, but the realization that someone cared for him just as much was even more terrifying. It took Owen years for Owen to realize that he had loved Claire Dearing, and it wasn’t until seeing her again that he remembered just how much he still cared. He knew she’d probably never care for him again, not the way she had, but he had to at least talk to her – explain to her how big of an idiot he was – the trick would be getting her to listen.

 

 

* * *

 

 

     It had been a two weeks since Owen had seen Claire in the lab; she had done a great job at avoiding him. Everyday Owen would go to her office in his free time and ask to see Claire, and everyday her assistant Zara would turn him away, claiming that Claire was busy in a meeting.

 

     “She’s not in a meeting.” Owen finally blurted out just as Zara was ready to give her typical answer. “She’s behind that door and I _really_ need to speak to her.”

 

     “I’m sorry Mr. Grady, but Miss Dearing is a very busy woman. She runs this entire park and can’t simply drop everything to speak with you whenever you please.” Zara huffed.

 

     Having dealt with enough of the closed door in his face, Owen marched around Zara’s desk and made a beeline straight for Claire’s door.

 

     “You can’t just go in there!” Zara scolded him just as he opened up the door.

 

     Claire was sitting behind her desk, reading over some papers while simultaneously typing at her computer. Her blue eyes landed on Owen as soon as he walked in the door and she didn’t seem surprised to see him standing there, a bit disgruntled if anything from her shutting him out everyday.

 

     “I’m sorry,” Zara sighed. “He just sort of, well, barged it.”

 

     “It’s okay Zara, I’ll talk to him.” Claire said.

 

     “I’ll be out here if you need me to call security.” Zara grumbled, glaring at Owen before taking her seat behind her desk again.

 

     Owen shut the door and quickly crossed the room, standing in front of Claire’s desk and waiting for her to finish whatever she was typing.

 

     “You’re a hard woman to get a hold of.” Owen commented, Claire kept typing and trying to ignore his presence.

 

     “I run this entire park, I’m always busy.” She replied. “What did you need to talk to me about?” Claire finally stopped typing and turned to face him.

 

     “I just wanted to see if I could get some time to talk to you.” Owen said. “The way we left things weren’t the greatest.”

 

     “Look, Owen,” Claire began. “What happened in the past happened, there’s nothing we can do to change all of that. However, I’m willing to be a complete professional about all of this so we can do our jobs properly.”

 

     “Claire, I just want to be able to talk to you about what happened.” Owen sighed.

 

     “I don’t need to hear it.” Claire calmly stated, though her hands were starting to curl into fists. “What I _need_ is for us to just be able to work together, that’s all.”

 

     “Please, Claire.” Owen pleaded now. “Just give me a chance to explain everything to you.”

 

     Claire stared at him for a moment; Owen couldn’t help but notice the tears threatening to fall from her eyes. _Great, I’m screwing up again_ , Owen couldn’t help but think.

 

     “Fine.” Claire relented. “We can talk tomorrow, I’m busy the rest of the day.”

 

     “Great, uh, after work? My place?” Owen asked, he knew the last thing Claire would want was to talk about what they had gone through somewhere crowded and full of people.

 

     Claire nodded in return and tried to look anywhere else around the room except for directly at Owen.


	3. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claire didn’t want to talk with Owen, if anything she wanted to try and avoid him as much as she possibly could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Yeah, you guys are probably going to hate me after this chapter. I’m so sorry for this. But, hey look, flashbacks are in this chapter & one of Claire’s letter to Owen!

_“I don’t want you to leave!” Claire had shouted at the top of her lungs, she was more than glad that they were alone in his house at the moment because more than anything else she just wanted to yell at Owen for being such an idiot. “You’re just going to up and leave and go risk your life?”_

_“Claire-“_

_“No, no don’t you go and ‘Claire’ me, I have a right to be pissed off!” Claire lashed out, cutting off his sentence before it could even truly begin. “You’re one of the only people I care about the world and you expect me to be okay with you just sailing off with the Navy?”_

_“Claire, just calm down for a minute.” Owen sighed, grabbing Claire’s wrist and forcing her to stop pacing around his room. “You’re going to wear a hole into the floor.” He smirked, Claire just rolled her eyes knowing his tricks, once he got her to smile the anger would of course fade away – he had that stupid effect on her._

_“You can’t expect me to be okay with this.” Claire stated._

_“I don’t, trust me, I already had a lecture from my mom and everyone on her side of the family, I’m still going through with it.” Owen said, sometimes Claire hated that he was just as stubborn as her, if not more so in some instances._

_“I hate you.” Claire’s voice was beginning to tremble. “I really, really hate you.”_

_“You don’t mean that.” Owen muttered._

_Claire had been close to Owen before, they’d known each other for a while, and they were comfortable with closeness and touching. But over the past year things had been different, their touches felt electric and there was this ever-growing need to be closer to him. She figured it was just her for a while; her teenage brain taking over logic and making her believe something was there when there wasn’t. There were moments like this however, where Owen’s gaze would linger on her and he’d hold onto her just a bit tighter and she would swear there was something there between them._

_“I wish I did, it’d be easier.” Claire mumbled her reply._

_Owen’s lips collided with hers a few seconds later, something about the kiss seeming urgent, as if he needed it more than anything else in the world at that moment. It didn’t last long, by the time Claire worked herself past the shock of it, Owen had pulled away and looked like a deer caught in the headlights._

_“Sorry, I just…I don’t know what I was thinking.” Owen tried to explain._

_“…It’s okay.” Claire whispered before wrapping her arms around Owen’s neck and pulling him down to her level, pressing a gentle kiss against his lips._

_Owen reacted immediately again, his arms snaking around Claire’s waist and holding her close to him. Claire started immediately tugging at the bottom of Owen’s hoodie, wanting to pull it up over his head and get it out of the way; she could feel Owen smirking into their kiss as soon as she did that. It didn’t take long for Owen to oblige Claire’s silent request and part from their kiss just long enough to get his hoodie and his shirt off. Layer by layer, both of them lost pieces of their clothes until they had tumbled onto Owen’s bed in their underwear._

_Once they were on the bed, Owen kissed up Claire’s bare legs, lingering a bit longer on her thighs, kissing in certain places that moan. He eventually continued his journey up until he reached her neck where he couldn’t help but notice the necklace he’d given her that very morning hanging around her neck._

_“We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.” Owen couldn’t help but blurt out, he felt as if he needed to give her an out considering only hours ago they considered themselves best friends._

_It took Claire a moment to register what he had said, lost somewhere in the haze that Owen’s kisses had let her mind wander off to. “It’s okay.” Her voice was a bit breathy, and Owen didn’t care to admit just how much of a turn on that was._

_The Claire in front of him was completely different from the Claire he knew. Claire was always so put together and precise, not a hair out of place; now she was there on his bed in her underwear, her crimson red hair splayed across the pillow and her cheeks a flush pink. Both version of Claire were beautiful to him, but god, he knew he’d never be able to recover from her._

_“Okay.” Owen nodded before returning to kissing her neck, eliciting more moans out of her_

 

 

* * *

 

 

     Claire didn’t want to talk with Owen, if anything she wanted to try and avoid him as much as she possibly could. She even considered telling a small white lie and saying she got buried in paperwork at the office, but Claire knew Owen would only come to the office then to talk to her. _Just get it over with, rip it off like a Band-Aid,_ Claire thought to herself. She got into her car at the end of the day, going over the directions Owen had texted her earlier that day to get to his bungalow.

 

     “Just let him talk, agree to be professional, and get out of there.” Claire whispered to herself as she started up the car.

 

     Claire hesitated in her car for a moment and caught a glimpse of the gold necklace Owen had given her hanging around her neck. She didn’t know why she put it on this morning; she had been pretty good about keeping it off and on her nightstand. Claire knew she was going to see Owen later today, she figured that somewhere deep down she wanted Owen to see that maybe he forgot about her, but she never forgot about him – a way to justify the anger mixed with sadness she knew would more than likely come pouring out. Setting her mind on getting all of it over with, Claire started driving towards the bungalow and hoping that at the very least, it would be over with soon.

 

* * *

 

 

 

     When Claire got to the bungalow she somehow wasn’t surprised to see Owen sitting outside, working on a motorcycle and covered in oil and dirt.

 

     “You finally got the motorcycle you always wanted.” Claire stated as soon as she got out of the car.

 

     “Yeah, you’re people were nice enough to get it sent over here for me. I guess they figured I had to get around the island somehow other than the company cars.” Owen shrugged and grabbed a nearby rag, attempting to wipe some of the dirt and oil off of his hands. “You’re early.”

 

     “Oh, right, sorry, I would have called bu-“

 

     “No, no it’s fine. I just would have washed up a bit, hope you don’t mind.” Owen grinned.

 

     “You’re fine.” Claire assured him.

 

     “Do you want to talk inside, or…?” Owen wasn’t exactly too sure how to go about starting the conversation and Claire could tell.

 

     “Sure, inside is fine.” Claire said.

 

     Owen led her inside the bungalow, tucking the rag he had with him into his back pocket and making his way over to the sink to try and wash his hands. “Sorry about all the boxes, they’ve had me running around down there making sure the raptor pen is ready for when they hatch, should be next week sometime.”

 

    “I’ve heard.” Claire navigated her way through the maze of boxes until she made it to the sofa and sat down, it being the only thing not covered in Owen’s belongings or empty boxes.

 

     “You want anything to drink?” Owen called out.

 

     “No thanks.” Claire answered, though what she wanted more than anything else in the world right now was a glass of wine – a big glass of it for that matter.

 

     Owen eventually made his way over to her, navigating the same labyrinth of boxes before sitting beside her, tossing some of the empty ones aside. There was an awkward silence that fell between the two, Claire fixing her skirt and Owen trying to find a comfy spot in the sofa.

 

     “You know I…I never thought I’d see you again.” Owen started the conversation; finally sitting still and watching Claire still fidget around with her skirt.

 

     “I can honestly say the same thing.” Claire murmured her reply.

 

     “I don’t even know where to start.” Owen sighed.

 

     “You could start with why you never answered back, or why you stayed silent for so long that I just started assuming you just didn’t care or thought you were dead.” Claire kept herself calm, but she could hear the coldness of her own words.

 

     “I didn’t know how to answer back.” Owen explained.

 

     “You just start writing, it’s not that hard.” Claire said.

 

     “I know that,” Owen smirked, she could see him looking at her out of the corner of her eye, searching her face for some sort of reaction. “I just…I didn’t know what to say back. One day we were friends and the next we were going at it like rabbits and-“

 

     “I don’t need to relive all that.” Claire cut him off; she remembered perfectly well what happened in the days leading up to Owen leaving. “All I wanted was a reply, you could have said anything! You could have talked about the ocean, you could have written some made up story, just anything would have been nice!”

 

     Owen stayed silent and watched as Claire started to crack a bit; she was finally looking at him, her eyes welling with tears again.

 

     “Instead you didn’t say anything, not a damn word. After a while I found out that you’d go back home when you came back and visit your mom. You used to mean a lot to me Owen and you just vanished.” Claire knew she had started crying, against her will, and started trying to wipe the tears away before Owen could really see them.

 

     “I know, I was an ass, I’m sorry Claire. I don’t know what else to say other than I’m sorry. I was scared; I didn’t know what the hell was going on with half of the things in my life at that point. I cared about you more than anyone else and…what can I say? I fucked up.” Owen said, it wasn’t until Claire herd his voice begin to crack that she realized how upset he truly was. “I didn’t want to hurt you and I did.”

 

     “Okay.” Claire’s voice trembled as she tried to regain her composure.

 

     “Okay?” Owen asked confused.

 

     “It’s out there in the open now, we said what we had to say.” Claire wiped her eyes again, knowing her makeup had probably turned into a mess by now. “Let’s just work together and leave it at that.” She got up off the sofa and started heading straight for the front door.

 

     “Claire!” Owen jumped up off the sofa and managed to block her path just before she opened up the front door. “Claire, come on, please don’t run off.”

 

     “I’ve heard what I had to hear, you said your peace, I’ve said mine, and it’s done. Let’s just move on from all of this and be adults.” Claire insisted.

 

     “You kept it?” Owen’s voice was barely a whisper now.

 

     “Kept what?”

 

     It took Claire a moment to realize he was staring at her neck, more specifically at the necklace he’d given her so long ago. His gaze made her a bit self-conscious, all of the sudden she felt like the awkward teenaged Claire Dearing again.

 

     “It’s just a necklace.” Claire said with a shrug.

 

     Owen reached out towards her, his movements slow as if he were dealing with a skittish animal. Claire wanted to flinch away from him, but as soon as his hand caressed her cheek, she didn’t want to move a single inch. His hand worked it’s way into her hair while his other hand found her waist and before she could protest, Owen was kissing her with the same ferocity she remembered from all those years ago. The kiss was sloppy, a mixture of lips and teeth and tongues, both hungrily searching out for some sort of relief from the other. Claire couldn’t help the moans and groans that escaped her lips once Owen’s kisses started to wander down her neck and under the collar of her shirt. It wasn’t until both of his hands had worked their way up under her shirt and touched her bare skin that Claire realized exactly what was happening and jumped, pushing Owen away in the process.

 

     “This is a mistake, this is just another mistake.” Claire mumbled to herself as she started to straighten out her shirt.

 

     “It’s not.” Owen tried to reassure her. “Claire, I was scared back then because I was just a kid and I had no idea what being in love with someone even felt like, it took me years to figure out that I loved you, I did long before we ever even slept together back then.”

 

     Claire had enough, she didn’t want to hear anymore of what happened in the past, she had spent so long trying to move on from it and now it was all flooding back. Years ago she would have given anything to hear Owen say that he loved her, now all she wanted to do was run out the front door. Claire slipped past Owen and marched out the front door, she wasn’t sure what she expected from coming here. She had her hand on her car door handle when she felt Owen grab her wrist.

 

     “Owen, I can work with you, I can make myself do my job and do it well.” Claire said with her newfound resolve as she came to face him again. “But I can’t handle this back and forth nonsense with you. We were in each other’s lives once a long time ago, and maybe things would be different now if we had made different choices, but we can’t change the choices we made – the choices we _both_ made. It’d be easier for the both of us if we just did our jobs and went about our lives the way we have been before we met again.”

 

     “Do you really want that?” Owen asked.

 

     “Yes, right now, I would like that more than anything else in the world. The simpler we can make this, the better.” Claire sighed.

 

     It was silent for a moment; Claire could practically see the wheels spinning inside Owen’s head, thinking everything through. “Okay.” He finally said with a nod. “If that’s what you want, I can do that.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Owen,_

_I don’t know what I said or did. You haven’t answered back any of my other letters and…honestly, I don’t know what else to do anymore. I don’t think you’ll ever answer any of them back, I don’t even know if you’re getting these anymore at this point. I just wanted to say that I miss you, I miss you like crazy, and I’m pretty sure that for a while there I loved you. Not like that matters anymore anyway._

_Best of luck,_

_Claire_


	4. Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Owen took the picture the morning after Claire had spent the night, she complained that her hair was a mess and she wanted him to destroy the picture, but Owen always thought she looked nothing short of beautiful. Her hair shined in the bright morning light and she had this genuine happy smile that he loved more than anything in the world. He would give anything to see her smile like that one more time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I’m making up for the horrible deed I committed in the last chapter, as promised I’m making these two dorks play nice, they should after all considering part five is going to be the last chapter!

     In the weeks following Claire’s visit to Owen’s bungalow, Claire had barely seen him at all. In the few times she had seen him, Owen kept his word and kept things completely professional between the both of them. The minute that that raptors hatched in the lab, Claire had heard from just about everyone in the park how well the raptors had taken to bonding with Owen. Ever since the raptors hatched however, Owen had fallen behind on almost all of his paper work, leaving Claire to deal with InGen breathing down her neck wanting updates on the velociraptors.

 

     “You’re leaving early.” Zara noticed as Claire left her office.

 

     “I have to go to the raptor paddock and see if Mr. Grady finished any of his paper work.” Claire sighed. “If I have to take another call from Vic Hoskins one more time asking about the raptors I’m going to scream.”

 

     “He’s certainly a pain.” Zara grumbled. “Go ahead, if anyone other than Vic Hoskins calls I’ll tell them to call your cell.”

 

     “Thank you, Zara.” Claire said.

 

 

* * *

 

 

     Claire had gotten used to the employee’s of the park generally trying to avoid her, most of the time whenever they would see her coming their way they would go the opposite direction – and things were no different at the raptor paddock. In the short time they had been on the island, most of the new employees had learned that whenever Claire came to the paddock, it usually meant nothing good. The only one out of the entire crew, aside from Owen, who even talked to Claire, was Barry, an employee who had been on the island long before he was assigned to the raptors.

 

     “Afternoon, Miss Dearing.” Barry said with a polite smile as she walked up towards him.

 

     “Good afternoon, Barry. Do you know where Mr. Gra- Owen…do you know where Owen is?” Claire asked, correcting herself.

 

     “He’s up on the catwalk taking his lunch finally, busy day with the girls.” Barry explained.

 

     Claire nodded and politely excused herself from the conversation before hiking up the catwalk. She’d caught some of the other employees stealing a glimpse of her before quickly turning away, some were whispering to one another before pretending they weren’t even talking at all, Claire was used to all of that by now. Sitting down in the middle of the catwalk, a burger in one hand and a pen in the other with a pile of papers sprawled out in front of him was Owen, desperately trying to concentrate on whatever he was writing.

 

     “Paperwork?” Claire asked as she approached him.

 

     Owen glanced up for a minute, taking a bit out of his burger before nodding and returning to his writing.

 

     “What can I say,” Owen said after swallowing his bite. “My Claire senses were tingling, I knew you would come looking for this stuff at some point. I haven’t had much time since the girls hatched.”

 

     “Looks like you haven’t had much time to sleep either, you look exhausted.” Claire noted.

 

     “Yeah, I’ve been working on this stuff at home and here, whenever I get the chance.” He yawned. “It’s like being a single parent to four toddlers, I’m starting to understand why my mom was always so tired when I was a kid.”

 

     “You drove you’re mother nuts even when you got older.” Claire blurted out, she’d made it a rule ever since their conversation to avoid talking about the past, the past brought up too many things between them, but not all of the memories were tainted.

 

     “I got to give her credit for being able to handle me for eighteen years until I got out of her hair.” Owen smirked. “She always liked it whenever you were around, she said you kept me out of trouble.”

 

     “Do you, uh, do you need any help?” Claire tripped over her words a bit, desperate to change the subject.

 

     “No, thanks, I’ve got half of it done.” Owen grabbed a nearby pile of papers that he had weighted down with a rock, handing them over to Claire. “I should have the rest done by tonight, I’ll drop them off.”

 

     “Oh, okay. Thank you.” Claire carefully took the pile of papers; most of it was a mess of papers clipped together. Some were wrinkled up and had spots of oil on them, clearly done whenever Owen was working on his motorcycle at the same time, a few even had coffee stains proving he’d either done it in the morning or stayed up late to finish them. “Try and get some sleep tonight Owen, the papers can wait.”

 

     Owen looked up at her, a grin forming on his face. “Whatever you say, boss.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

     Owen was exhausted; beyond exhausted actually, he was more than sure he had passed the line of actual exhaustion a few days ago. He knew the girls were going to be a lot of hard work, he could only imagine how difficult they would be when they got to potential killing people size; and the paperwork had become the bane of his existence. InGen wanted to know anything and everything that went on with the raptors, he could only imagine the pressure they put on Claire when he didn’t get it to them in time. He was half tempted to call up Vic Hoskins and tell him to shove all this paperwork up his ass. On top of the paperwork however, Owen had foolishly taken on a side project, one that consisted of him taking out all of the old letters from Claire he’d kept over the years and finally writing a reply to each and every one.

 

     Owen had times after writing a few letters, when his hand was cramping up like crazy, he considered just writing one letter to sum everything up. But he knew how much all of these letters had meant to Claire, not only at the time that she wrote them, but how hurt she still was after he just dropped off the map. As the letters went on they got harder to read, her emotions were coming through clear as day – how worried she was, how angry she was, even how sad she was – everything directed right towards him. When the letters started to get like this, he’d stopped reading them, though he still continued to keep them hoping to have enough courage to read them one day. As the Claire’s letters got more emotional, so did Owen’s, some of them were almost too hard to even read or reply to, but Owen knew it had to be done.

 

     Yes, he’d made a promise to Claire to be professional, to be on his very best behavior whenever they were around each other – as rare as that had been in the past few weeks – and he liked to think he’d kept that promise so far. He started the letters out of a bit of desperation, hoping that if he wrote a reply to every single letter and gave them to Claire that he’d at least get a glimpse of the Claire he remembered, not the one he knew now that shut him out at every turn, though he more than deserved it. After today however, her coming out there to the paddock and mentioning a small thing from their past that she remembered, as tiny of a detail that it was, gave Owen the little bit of hope he needed.

 

     He was beginning last letter he was going to write, one that wasn’t a reply to any of Claire’s that he felt was the most important one out of all of them. He took a break, his hand starting to cramp up on him again between the letter writing and the piles of paperwork, and he caught a glimpse of one of the old pictures of Claire he had found while digging through the letters. It was the only picture he had of her over the past sixteen years and it was easily his favorite. Owen took the picture the morning after Claire had spent the night, she complained that her hair was a mess and she wanted him to destroy the picture, but Owen always thought she looked nothing short of beautiful. Her hair shined in the bright morning light and she had this genuine happy smile that he loved more than anything in the world. He would give anything to see her smile like that one more time.

 

 

* * *

 

 

     Claire loved wearing her high heels, she honestly did, but there was no better feeling in the entire world than her finally getting home after a long day and kicking her heels off – her feet finally being able to breathe after a ten hour day. She changed out of her clothes as quickly as she could, opting for sweatpants and a t-shirt that was far to big for her; she loved her business attire, but at home she felt like she could finally breathe after a long day. Claire had gone through her routine of pouring herself a glass of wine and stretching out on the sofa, putting something on the TV to keep her entertained until the wine kicked in and she wouldn’t be able to fight off sleep. Just as Claire’s eyes started to get a bit droopy, there was a knock at her door that caught her by surprise.

 

     While it was true that most everyone in the park knew where Claire lived, there was only one person that would even think of coming to her door, especially this late, and even then Zara would text or call before coming over. Claire got up off the sofa and opened up the front door, looking around the outside hallway to see there wasn’t another soul in sight, not even the elevator at the end of the hall looked to be in use. In front of the door, however, was a pile of paperwork and Claire knew exactly who left it behind. She picked up the messy pile with a smirk on her face, the little sticky not attached to it reading “ _Here’s the last of it_ ” and some attempt at a velociraptor Owen tried to draw on it. Claire shut the door behind her and just as she put down the pile of papers on the coffee table, she noticed an envelope sticking out from underneath one of the papers. Claire started going through all the papers, and in between all of the paperwork for the raptors were letters with her name and old address from back in Madison written on them.

 

     “What the hell?” Claire whispered to herself as she tried to sort out all the envelopes from the paperwork.

 

     After reading a few of the letters, it became clear to Claire that Owen had actually written a response to every single letter she ever wrote to him. Some were happier letters filled with stories from his time out there, in others he would just go on about something pointless. The more difficult letters to read were the ones Claire knew were in response to some of the more difficult letters she had written, the ones towards the end where she was giving up hope of him ever answering her back. There was one letter that didn’t match any date from back when Claire was writing letters, instead it had today’s date on it, and that letter was enough for Claire to take with her as she slipped on a pair of shoes, grabbed her car keys, and ran out the front door.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Claire,_

_I know these letters are too late, and I know none of them can undo the past. Sorry doesn’t really seem like enough for this. I promised you I’d be professional, that I would do my job and that was it, and I plan on keeping that promise to you, not matter how you react to these letters, unlike the other promises I made to you in the past. You might completely hate me after reading all of these letters, this one in particular, because in this one I wanted to say how I feel right now._

_Do you remember the day I gave you that necklace? I know you probably try to forget about it every chance that you get. I thought about it a lot while I was away, and it took me much longer than I care to admit to piece together that I thought about it so much because I was in love with you. But that day, and the days that followed until I left, were the best days of my life. And sadly, somewhere along the way, I forgot just how happy those days with you made me._

_Then I came out here to this island filled with dinosaurs, the last place on Earth I ever expected to run into someone I knew. I guess you could say I was surprised when that assistant of yours told me that Claire Dearing was in charge of this island and kept the whole place running, I thought I was going crazy until I came face to face with you again. I got what I probably didn’t deserve, which was a second chance to tell you that I’m still in love with you. I don’t expect you to feel remotely the same way, if anything I expect that the next time you see me you’ll probably slap me across the face, but I just want to finally say what I was too stupid to say sixteen years ago._

_I am in love with you Claire Dearing._

_-Owen_


	5. Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “So much for peace and quiet.” Claire groaned, letting her phone finish ringing and knowing she’d call Zara back when she was leaving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So, here we are at the ending! Don’t worry, I’m all for happy endings, enjoy!

     For the first time in a long time, Claire didn’t have a plan. She had just jumped in her car and started driving straight towards Owen’s bungalow. She didn’t know what she was going to say, or what she was going to do, all she really knew was that she had to see Owen, face-to-face, right now. Once Claire had gotten to the bungalow, everything seemed to hit her in that moment, it was almost midnight and she just ran out of her apartment in nothing but her sweats to go confront Owen. When they were younger he had a habit of making her do crazy things, it seemed he still had the same effect to this day despite everything.

 

     Claire couldn’t help but self-consciously check herself in the mirror before going up to the door. Knowing there was no point in turning back now, Claire took a deep breath, grabbed the letter she had tossed in the passenger seat, and marched up to Owen’s front door. The lights on from inside the bungalow was the only thing illuminating the darkened steps, and Claire could almost make out the form of what looked like a nearly unconscious Owen fighting to stay awake on the sofa through one of the windows. Before she even dared to let herself overthink the situation to death, Claire knocked on Owen’s door and waited for him to come and answer. After hearing what sounded like a box or two tumbling over in his hurry to get to the door, Owen finally opened up the front door, and though he looked completely drained, he managed to look a bit surprised as well.

 

     “Claire? What are you doing out here so late? Is something wrong with the girls?” He questioned right away, once his eyes fell on the paper in her hand however; things seemed to fall into place for him. “Did you read those already?”

 

     “Yeah, I read them…all of them.” Claire nodded. “But this one really got me.” She held out the letter to Owen, and after one quick glance he could tell exactly what letter she was talking about.

 

     “That one was my favorite to write actually. I think it sums everything up.” Owen was smirking now, something about it left Claire torn between wanting to kiss him and wanting to slap him.

 

     “So…what? That’s it then? You just write down that you love someone and what exactly did you plan on happening after that? Riding off into the sunset together?” Claire asked.

 

     “No.” Owen said with a bit of a laugh. “Honestly, I don’t know. I just wanted to get it all out there, I wanted you to know how I felt, how I feel.”

 

     “And just exactly what do you feel right now?” Claire couldn’t help but ask, she had read it on the letter a hundred times, the last line of it running through her head the whole drive over. She just wanted to hear him say it.

 

     Owen still had a smirk plastered on his face; she noticed his eyes scan her up and down until they paused on her neck for a moment, noticing that she was still wearing the necklace despite everything. When his eyes met hers again, he busted out in a grin, the genuine kind that Claire hadn’t seen in a while.

 

     “I feel like I was lucky enough to meet an amazing woman and be given a second chance to tell her that I am still in love with her, despite me being probably the biggest jackass on the face of the planet.” Owen stated.

 

     It was all Claire needed to hear to make her launch towards Owen and kiss him with a passion that almost surpassed their prior kiss in the bungalow. Owen quickly responded to the kiss, wrapping his arms around her waist and guiding her in through the door, but never breaking their kiss for even a second. Once Owen had kicked the door shut behind them, Claire pulled away to catch her breath.

 

     “Can I ask you something?” Owen had his forehead pressed up against Claire’s; they were both out of breath and had smiles plastered on their faces.

 

    “Sure.” Claire replied.

 

     “What do you feel right now? What made you drive all the way out here?” Owen asked.

 

     The question took Claire off guard, but the answer immediately popped into her head without a second thought. “Because I’m still in love with you too.”

 

     This time it was Owen’s turn to steal the kiss, scooping Claire up off the floor and carrying her to his bedroom. He placed her gently down on the bed, his kisses moving down to her collarbone and right at the collar of her t-shirt. His hands had inched their way under her shirt, his rough and calloused hands felt intoxicating against her skin. Despite Claire’s wishes, Owen pulled away again and she couldn’t help but pout a bit at the absence of his lips.

 

     “Owen, what are you doing?” Claire asked.

 

     “I just…it feels like a dream, too good to be true.” He mumbled, looking down at her as a smile stretched out across his face. “I don’t want to wake up if you are a dream.”

 

     “I’m real.” Claire smiled. “Care to find out just how real all of this is?”

 

     “You have no idea.” Owen grinned.

 

 

* * *

 

 

     Owen hadn’t slept this well in weeks. Even when he opened his eyes this morning and saw Claire still in his arms and tucked into his chest, he still couldn’t process what happened last night as real. Claire Dearing had told him that she loved him and she even stayed the night, it was a dream Owen never wanted to wake up from. He didn’t want to disturb her from her sleep, she looked so peaceful, but he couldn’t help but run his fingers through her hair and slowly but surely, Claire began to stir until her blue eyes met Owen’s with a smile on her face.

 

     “Morning.” Owen grinned and pressed a kiss to Claire’s forehead.

 

     “Good morning.” Claire replied. “Did you get some sleep?”

 

     “You mean after you finally let me go to sleep?” Owen couldn’t help but laugh a bit, as Claire’s smile grew wider. “I haven’t slept that well in a long time.”

 

     “Me either.” Claire admitted as she wrapped her arms around Owen now, pulling him closer.

 

     “I missed all of this.” Owen mumbled.

 

     “I missed it too.” Claire agreed.

 

     Owen’s hands cupped Claire’s face now and leaned in to steal a kiss, and Owen would have loved nothing more than to keep kissing Claire. A disgruntled groan escaped from the both of them when both of their cell phones managed to start going off.

 

     “It’s Barry, the girls are probably looking for me.” Owen sighed as he glanced at his phone.

 

     “Sounds like your getting attached to them.” Claire smiled. “Zara’s looking for me; I’ll have you know I’ve never been late to work once and this is going to be the first time I’ve ever been late.”

 

     “It’s nice to break the rules every once in a while.” Owen smirked; Claire couldn’t help but roll her eyes.

 

     “So much for peace and quiet.” Claire groaned, letting her phone finish ringing and knowing she’d call Zara back when she was leaving.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

     It had only been two weeks, and despite Claire setting firm rules on her and Owen not being overly affectionate in public, he managed to make her forget about them one day in her office.

 

     “It’s your office, no one is in here aside from us.” Owen protested in-between the kisses he pressed to Claire’s cheek and slowly moving his way down her neck.

 

     “Yes, but it’s still out in public.” Claire argued, not wanting to admit that she was enjoying all of this a bit.

 

     Owen had Claire leaning perfectly against the edge of her desk, he’d had her so wrapped up in their kisses that she completely ignored his hands on her hips despite the fact that they were covered in dirt, him racing over to her office as soon as he got his lunch break. Owen tore himself away from kissing Claire for only a moment to look over his shoulder before turning back to her with a grin.

 

     “The door is shut, so _technically_ it’s private.” Owen said.

 

     “Owen, we are not having sex in my office.” Claire officially ended the topic and pressed a kiss to Owen’s cheek. “But it looks like I do have to go home and change now.” She sighed, as she looked down at all the dirt Owen had gotten on her.

 

     “Sorry about that.” Owen admitted sheepishly and went to move his hands.

 

   Claire grabbed his hands and kept them firmly planted on her hips with a smile on her face. “Just because I said we’re not having sex here doesn’t mean we still can’t kiss.”

 

     “I knew I’d get you to break at least one rule.” Owen joked.

 

     Owen returned to kissing Claire, her holding his hands in place to keep them from wandering and causing any more stains. Claire was almost tempted to go back on her word when she heard the door to her office open.

 

     “Claire, Mr. Masrani is on the ph-“

 

     Zara stopped short as soon as she fully understood what was happening between Claire and Owen.

 

     “Uh, so sorry for the interruption.” Zara stated.

 

     Claire quickly tried to compose herself, she hadn’t realized just how disoriented she had let herself get. Owen had her shirt un-tucked and partially unbuttoned; her skirt was hiked up a bit as well. Owen’s shirt was almost in the same state that hers was, only covered in a lot more dirt that she was.

 

     “It’s fine Zara, I can take the call.” Claire’s voice was a bit strained, her eyes were wide with shock and her cheeks slowly reddening from embarrassment, though she had to admit Owen was rather adorable trying to help her look decent before he even worried about himself.

 

     “No, no it’s okay.” Zara said. “I’ll…uh, I’ll tell him you’ll call him back…and I think I’ll take my lunch now if that’s alright.”

 

     “Sure.” Claire nodded.

 

     Zara slowly walked out of the room and shut the door behind her, when she left Claire finally let out the breath she had been holding in.

 

     “I guess that cat’s out of the bag, huh?” Owen asked.

 

     “I suppose it is.” Claire reached up now and started buttoning Owen’s shirt, a small smile back on her face. “You know, I still have to go change out of these clothes now that I look like I’ve been training raptors all morning, care to join me?”

 

     “Do you really even need to ask?” Owen grinned before pressing a kiss to her cheek.


End file.
